work toward citizenship. "washington journal" is next. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] ♪ host: the editors of the washington post rightabout don't ask, don't tell. they say a senate vote for a repeal this month would ensure that those with the expertise most invested in the success of the armed forces, military leaders themselves, will lead the way. politically, there is debate going on on whether a vote will take place in this lame duck session. your thoughts this morning for our first 45 minutes as to what should be done as far as repeal is concerned. the phone numbers are on your screen.

your thoughts as they come to the close of congress as to what should be done on "don't ask, don't tell." should be pushed to the next congress? here is your chance to talk about what you would like to see done. you can also hit us up by e-mail at journal@cspn.org. here is the washington post editorial. the push back seemed to contract the previous day's message of

defense secretary robert gates and mike mullen who support repeal. they point to the same desirable results, a slow and measured process to limit the policy that prevents gays and led the -- lesbians from serving openly in the armed forces. they also talk about the political talk. apart that you heard at the top of the show saying that the concern was detailed in the pentagon report and must be taken seriously. the political discussion continued yesterday, tax cuts being the main activity of congress that you probably heard about and watched on c-span.

"don't ask, don't tell"was a topic as well john mccain has offered a dizzying support of" don't ask, don't tell." john mccain was compared to lucy in peanuts, who continues to pull the football away. as far as this lame-duck session, there is debate going

on and whether a vote should take place. again, your thoughts if you want to weigh in this morning. here are the phone lines. twittercspanwj. first caller, go ahead. caller: i am a former marine, vietnam, a disabled medevac from vietnam way back when did you have heard it say it does not matter who you share the foxhole with, so to speak, in wartime, we are fighting a common enemy whether we are heterosexual or homosexual. the fact is that very little time is spent in combat.

most of the time is spent, for soldiers, in the rear, in the .arracks and so bike witnesse eyewitnessed gay behavior back in vietnam and as a young man, it was demoralizing. it did not happen very much but i just want to say for a young person to view that, it is demoralizing especially in a war environment. >host: when you hear top leaders from the military say a repeal will probably happen and top legislators say that repeal will probably happen, what do you get from that? caller: i think they are idealistic, politically correct people. even the young soldiers who have been interviewed and serve it in today's military say they would be ok with it. i think they are just young people going with the flow, not

knowing the realism involved with such a measure of allowing what we used to call sodomy and the military. i don't think the military leaders nor the politically correct journalists actually know what they are going to enact. think they really know what the results will be. it will not be good. host: up next, michael on our democrat from georgia of. understandt i don't is that the same people that got us into the war which are the republicans are the same people trying to put people out of the military. it just does not make any sense, thank you. host: orleans, louisiana up next on our independent line. good morning. caller: i am wondering, what are

the benefits to the military by letting people serve openly? it would be easier to start a relationship with someone. i have seen many people make stupid decisions just because they are in a strong relationship with someone. i don't see the benefit. host: as far as if you are observing this from the military side of capitol hill, what do you observe from this negotiation? caller: instead of thinking about someone's feelings, how about you just think about what is best for the military? if you are gay and you can serve, i don't understand what the problem is. why do you have to be able to serve openly? host: from the san francisco

chronicle --

los angeles, calif., joseph, republican line. is this you? caller: this is ty in los angeles. host: go ahead. caller: i served in the navy and i have friends in the military and that you ask anyone of them including myself what it comes to decision making, whether it be in business but it is a dire situation, if you turn to batman and look him in the eye, if he is gay or not, it does not matter. i also have an idea of having the troops have a more tribunal or governmental decision making process not the congress, not the senate, the people who are fighting. ask them. thank you. host: before you go, in the

military when it comes to this topic, is a generational thing? caller: that is a good point. you would have to ask the service members. i have served for four years and what i can tell you is like i did -- when you look batman in the eye and there are decisions to be -- when you lookthat man in the eye and their decisions to be made -- host: we got that the guard -- are there death decisions based on caller: age absolutely not. if you are 21, 18, are getting close to 30, it does not really matter. if someone is in a foxhole with you are on a ship or bloating a turret, if he is gay or not, is

he not going to assist you in completing the mission? i say yes, he says. host: long island, new york, democrats blinded caller: i am not a team, i am 72. i am a heterosexual and i think to that young man what is the advantage -- the main advantage is integrity, honesty, true. when they go to west point, they take a vow that they will never lie or tolerate lighting from others in their graves. they have to live every day of their lives. for some reason, so many of the gay people who have been ousted from the military or high ranking people. a lead fighter pilot in the air force with 20 years' experience

in, they put him out last month. think of the money we lost. it is a matter of -- so many of the gays outed have been arabic speakers. a translator who has been speaking farsi and he speaks the language of the countries and we lose all that. that is why condoleezza rice wants said that they did not get the august memo until several weeks after. we have had a shortage of translators because many of the translators are the gay people who specialize in arabic speaking. the taxpayers should be outraged that we put out a man with 20 years' experience, we put out this choi boy. he is so cute. he was number 1 in his class. he was not at the top of his class, he graduated number 1. ask, don'tr as"don't

tell, what do you think congress should do about it? caller: i think they should get rid of it because it makes these people live a lot. a lesbian graduated from west point and she realized she had to lie, she switched to yale. we keep losing these people we train who are brilliant. these two men i referred to, one of them had been told he had been outed by a stray air force person. it had been told for two years but they found ways to not get rid of them. air force did not want to lose him. host: we will leave it there. "the new york times again, we will continue what we have been talking about a little more of other stories. this is from the diplomatic memo section of the new york times." wikileaks is a subject to this

week. secretary of state hillary clinton has talked about squeezing lemons from the wikileaks situation miami, fla., on the issue of "

don't ask, don't tell"and will looking at congress that they should repeal this. caller: good morning, i served in the marine corps and three of my brothers served in army and we are very, very much opposed to not just having this repealed but we all agree that homosexuals never should have been able to serve in the military and the first place. this all thing is purely political. the question is, if we're going to have a homosexual man and heterosexual men serving together, why do we separate men and women in the marines have ever where else? why not have everybody shower together? in the marine corps, there are many situations in which you have to touch each other. you shower together, you sleep together, you cannot have homosexual and heterosexual men together, it is impossible. when men come back from being in a town, many of the marines have had something to drink.

their inhibitions are low. this is just speculation on my part but i think a lot of guys a homosexualve heterosexua e inclination, they might do something in that situation. homosexuals are 2% of the population 24%-30% of men in their will leave of that 2% come in. the lady who called just before who said it seems that in many cases gays have many of these certain occupations, that is total baloney. one of my brothers learned to speak arabic, german, italian, and spanish and the obviously already spoken english. this canard about gays having talents that heterosexuals don't

have, does anybody believe that for a moment? host: what about the difference of opinion from people like mr. gates and admiral ramallah and who want to read -- they want to repeal this? caller: the secretary of defense gates and the head of the joint chiefs of staff, admiral mullen, are both political appointees. the other head of the armed forces are not political appointees. the two political appointees are say exactly what president barack obama wants them to say at the other man better heads of the army, the marines are saying what is in their hearts. that is the difference. host: we move on to orlando, florida, republican line. caller: at valley forge, there was a soldier co-engaged in same-sex behavior and george washington kicked him out of service with abhorrence and detestation.

i find this issue troubling sense it will cause problems in the military and you just brought up bradley manning of the wikileaks situation who is in the brig. he released wikileaks when they had a fight with his homosexual boy friend apparently. there is a perfect example of the problems that homosexuals would bring into the military if they are free to reveal their status. host: huntsville, alabama, democrats line. caller: give me a second. i am a part -- retire from air force and army. i did 22 years collectively. now is not a good time to address this with two wars going on bless his heart, obama did not serve the military and neither did biden. we need to do this gradually during peacetime when we can assess what we are doing and

make corrections and take a different direction. when you have to "war is going on, don't mess with this. the government is already corrupted and businesses are corrected and churches are corrupted. the military is the only thing from keeping us from having to learn chinese or russian. this is all we have left in this country that is not corrupted. have a good day. host: the commandant of the marine corps is james amos. >> approximately 45% of moraines surveyed viewed repeal negatively regarded unit effectiveness, unit readiness, and cohesion. 5%-30% of viewed review -- repeal positively in those categories. of particular concern is roughly 56% of combat arms marin's voiced-concerns. -benchmarks for combat-armed

marines range between 66% for unit affected as and 58% for cohesion these negative perceptions are held almost equally by all ranks within the combat arms communities. what the survey did not identify is the risk to the force should repeal be undertaken while the core is engaged in its ninth year of combat operations. with half of the marine corps operating forces either engaged in fighting in afghanistan, returning from theater, or preparing to deploy to combat again, the readiness and associated focus our foremost in shaping my implementation assessment. my experience throughout 40 years in uniform tell me that young men and women who volunteer to be marines do so with hon. and patriotic intentions. even vast differences in backgrounds, belize, or personnel is can be bridged. that said, if a law is changed

successfully implementing repeal, this has strong potential for disruption at the small unit level as it will no doubt divert leadership, attention away from a singular focus of preparing units for combat. host: fromjournal@cspn.org, these americans should be treated equal. they are willing to lay down their lives for their country. why shouldn't they allowed -- be treated equal? caller: 94 the opportunity. two quick observations. it is a logical. they tried to use england and israel as countries that have done this successfully. quite frankly, america is different number 2 -- host: why is america different? caller: america is not an

ancient nation such as israel and england we are cut from a different cloth. number two, they tried to use race and women and this is about sex. it is not about race and women. host: saint louis, missouri, republican line. caller: good morning. i have heard several commentators state that president obama, as commander in chief of the armed forces, could issue an executive order to end this policy. do you know why that no media people have asked him why he has not done that? host: no, i don't. >caller: why has he not done this? host: why do you think caller: i don't know. he promised that during his

election host: do you get input from other people as far as their thoughts and opinions? caller:no, i just hear commentators, leftist websites saying he should do this but no one is saying it very loudly. i am just curious of anybody knows host: wh why. host: perhaps someone will weigh in and give you input on that. there is also information dealing with the fallout from the center of charles rangel last week. his colleagues voted overwhelming -- overwhelmingly for censure.

the rebuke would only work if he felt ashamed and he did not when the legislators had resigned, rangel delivered a proud state. it says that shame seems to be losing its grip. there is more in""the washington post "peace. the issue now is "don't ask, don't tell," if it should be repealed. if you want to weigh in for the 20 minutes we have on this, the numbers are on your screen

from new york, our democrats line. caller: 90 of for taking my call and god bless cspan. i think it is sad that in this day and age, we are the leaders, the best country in the world but we always seem to fall behind when it comes to social issues. it is quite embarrassing. at this stage of the game, we should be a head of the curve. keeping out african-americans out of the military was nonsense that soldiersne said dead drunk, i have been around homosexuals when i drink and i have not want to be homosexual. host: why shouldn't it be repealed? caller: i think it should be repealed. they are willing to lay their lives down for the country so they should be able to do so. a sexual issue -- i have never

heard anyone becoming homosexual after a couple of drinks. most of them have served well. thank you very much. host: george casey also testified in this topic, the chief of staff for the army. we heard from general amos but here is george cad -- but george kasich. >> i believe that the implementation of the repeal in the near term will add another level of stress to an already stretched force and be more difficult in our combat arms a units and be more difficult for the army than the report suggests. that said, if repeal is directed, the animation principles in the report constitute a solid basis upon which to develop plans that will

mitigate the risk that i just described. properly implemented, i do not envision that the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" would keep us from accomplishing our world wide missions including combat operations. we have a disciplined force and season the leaders who can oversee the implementation of repeal with moderate risk to our military effectiveness in the short term and moderate risk to our ability to recruit and retain the all-volunteer force of a long haul. host: general george kasich, army chief of staff. columbia, south carolina, we go to the independent line. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i am former military. we have always had gays in the military. everyone in the human nose to the gay people are.

everyone in their know who the gay people are. it is very disturbing in housing with your children. my makeup? wear the women wear theirs. ultimately, they is a different issue than people just being day. i think there are a host of problems with that being open. the people we see on television that are openly gay, they are very dignified. they put the most dignified gate folks out like any campaign would. i am not saying that straight people are always dignified. i'm wondering what will happen when you are driving on post and the gays want to live with you and they have friends who

are phlegmy. i think it is a difficult issue. thank you for taking my call host: would that hurt cohesiveness in the unit? caller: it definitely would. you can't tell -- where will it stop? some people and men would have more problems than females. many men serve now with people that are gay and they know it. if the guy bunking next few where is female undies what do you do? caller: i believe this should not be repealed. i have seen many homosexual activists pushed through an elementary school fronts, in hollywood, in churches now, and i believe one of the last frontiers is the army.

i want to make a comment -- i am a commentgay man until i was 28 years old. -- i was eighth -- i made former gay man and i am happily married today to my wife of almost 80 years, the father of two children and no longer struggle with this issue. there were changes that happen in my life but more importantly, i believe this is a completely politicized issue by the homosexual agenda making this serious affront. i believe there will be many problems should this go through. i am completely against this entire thing being repealed host: louisiana, democrats line. caller: i want to tell you very quickly, i think this situation

should be repealed. we can work out our own military. i believe it should be repealed because i feel honesty is hurting our mission. there should be no more repeal action in the future. i think our military is very strong and very capable to finish this. i think we believe in ourselves as americans and we believe our own traditions and our own customs. unity can go on to solve the situation. our military is strong paramilitary is the best and the bible of the army will still be strong and continue to do the best it can do. host: democrats line.

caller: give me a moment. i served in the united states marine corps and voted democrat and republican. i voted for bush twice and barack obama. i consider myself truly independent. what we are coming up against is each of the generals keep mentioning combat arms. i served in the marine corps. this was in the 1980's. understand don't that the military, the combat arms, is totally different from commandments, supply units. it is a different mindset. there is more a day close natured relationship between the man. they are all alcott males. --alpha males.

we have individuals that were conducting themselves with suspicion of being gay and they caught heck the all-time they were there. imagine an officer leading a group of marines that is openly homosexual. the discipline in the unit will be horrible. i am being honest. i am telling you how it is. along with unit cohesiveness, you are cutting -- coming out of iraq and afghanistan and the lasting image to worry about is a situation where you have fellow marines, soldiers, sailors, and aram and pickering and fighting and backstabbing. in regards to things like homosexuality. allows ask, don't tell"

gays to be in the military but this takes away the open attitude. you have so many problems that arise from the agenda where the social issue becomes more important than the combat effectiveness. host: republican lines. caller: i want to elaborate on the last caller. i am not in the military but the thing about coming out into the open, i am homosexual myself and that is an act that you are doing. that is like saying that if you want to go out and do something you do something. why should doing something be law or not law. it is ridiculous when you think about it. you cannot just come out and do something and have it as an act of homosexuality.

that takes the power away from the group of whether you are an individual or not. i think it would complicate the situation host: do you think congress will act on this before the end of the year? caller: yes, probably, yeah. host: what you think will happen? caller: maybe, i don't know. host: i want to tell you about our newsmakers program. it features james bullard, the president and ceo of the federal reserve bank in st. louis. the job numbers came out yesterday -- friday. >> the last 80 months of the jobs numbers have been very consistent -- the last 18 months

of the jobs numbers have been very consistent there is an earlier era in the united states when the recession would end that labor market would bounce back fast. that has not occurred in the u.s. for 25 years. i expect that behavior to continue and i expect unemployment to tick down slowly next year. i believe we are in good status by the jobs number. i believe we are in good shape for 2011. i believe we will see faster economic growth next year and i think many businesses are in a fairly good position. they are profitable. they have a lot of cash on the sidelines. when they see opportunity, they will go ahead and invest and hire workers host: 8 is the president and ceo of the federal reserve bank in st. louis. that is right after this program. you can also see it at 6:00 this evening. go ahead on our democrats line.

caller: home of the fray, land of the brave? outbreaks are we if we can't fight along spngwebob? i fought alongside gays. the politicians would like to chase pageboys around the legislator. i think the representatives are afraid if they start putting gay people in the military, they won't have any pageboys to chase around congress. host: aside from that, as far as your experience in the military, what does that have to do with cohesiveness? caller: we are talking about pretty small numbers. we're not talking about 75% of the population. this is just silly.

how brave are we? you can't fight alongside a man? host: los angeles on our independent line. caller: so far, it is not about can we, it is about should wait. the answers so far is no as far as most of your callers. we are talking about homosexuality. we're talking about two men who have a sexual act between two men. we say the military accept this openly. we are putting the stamp of approval on behavior, sexual behavior that most people find offensive. we're talking about a sexual act between two men. it is not a natural act. it is not something most people come down. do we want to read in our

history books that a man charged a hell and by the way he was a homosexual? i have no problems with homosexuals. i don't want to know what they do. i don't care with their sex is why do they have to be so militant about this? why do we have to condone something that we find offensive? that is why they say don't ask, don't tell. we don't want to know. don't throw it in our face. host: if it is not repealed, you don't care what happens in the military? caller: obviously, it is going on for the people who are thrown out are activists. some have not stuck to the spirit of the policy. they have become militant and

they have become a problem. many people have been serving in the military as days forever but they did not get thrown out. people are people but i don't put my sex acts out in front of everybody. i don't claim to beat somebody because of my sex. what is it with these people? are they crazy? host: a story in the philadelphia inquirer this morning -- it deals with nasa and what they are doing with its astra not corps. they are exploring -- and what they're doing with their astronauts corps. some astronauts are preparing for long duration of board the space -- space station. that leaves more than half of

the 64 current astronauts, nine more are in training without a mission. it is a matter of timing is more than 30 missions have been available through 2020 but have not been assigned person . under the bush administration, the target was the moon by 2020 and president obama has announced a trip to an asteroid by 2025. palestine, texas, we are asking if congress should appearepeals" don't ask, don't tell." caller: in my way of thinking, it should stay that way.

i am one of the% day. i made a veteran. i am 100% disabled. it is no one's business was somebody does in their bedroom. believe me, there will be gay men out there who will prance around in high heels and make up and make a spectacle of themselves. it will break down the cohesiveness of our military fighting man. when i was in, i did my job and my sexual orientation had nothing to do with it. there is an agenda here. most of these gay men and women will try to join for one reason and when they get kicked out, they will turn around and try to sue the government on the grounds of discrimination. if they are allowed in, they better be aware that there is a code of conduct they have to respect. host: englewood, fla. on our

independent line. caller: i am all for repeal in "don't ask, don't tell." i don't know why everyone goes on the idea that gay men will be out there prancing in high heels and makeup. to me it is appalling that these people who have a bill in outed by other angry pple in the miliry becausehey have hher p after t about to retire and they are thrown out of the military wi no millionaires and billionaires will create jobs. >> paul on our independent line. >> thank you for taking my call. >> i guess my main question is what planet are both of your guests on? i have been getting phone calls,

texts, emails. i have a text on my phone right now from a huge obama supporter, my brother saying if obama cav on these tax cuts, he will be through with them. people did not stand on line to vote and bring people to the poles to see him caving on these issues. i guess my question is, why should a person come out and support the president in 2012 if they know he is going to keep caving? he has to stand tall on these

issues. he tried be cooperating when possible with republicans. >> he has already tried the first path. that didn't go as well as he had hoped. the second path is one they are considering right now. by the way, i don't think the second path is a sell out. i think it reflects the path that 70% of americans want the democrats and republicans to work together to find solutions in the middle. what the president is trying to do now is just for that. he can veet owe the first pass

like bill clinton did with bell fair reform in the hope that he will get something better the problem is that all the irs forms need to be set. if the taxes go up, people aren't going to get the refunds in a timely fashion. the president has put it in a box. it has to be dealt with now. when the president is doing is trying to get the best deal from the republicans. he knows he needs to sign something if people are are going to file. this is not what he wants but what the president produced. we'll listen to that and get your thoughts.

>> this is absolutely essential you've seen him make this trip, which was good. it was a long way for four hours we saw today that iran has full control over the cycle. strengthening relations makes sense. we learned that the previous star treaty was not holding up the end in terms of

countries. know tre was some pr potion. . no somere